Thank God for fake news
I was sitting on the train yesterday going up to London to conduct some media training with one of BCM’s clients. As per usual copies of that augst tome, “The Metro”, that’s a tabloid newspaper if you are reading this blog outside the UK, were strewn across the carriage, a leftover from the morning commuters. I like The Metro as you can usually polish off the Sudoku in 15 mins, and I suppose that in a way reflects the editorial content of the newspaper, small bite sized pieces of news that are accessible to anyone 11 years or older.
A PR robot you cannot be “Siri-ous”.
Suddenly there was a thud, my fellow passengers looked over towards me with faces reflecting deep concern. I quickly realised the thud was my own jaw hitting the carriage floor in response to the headline, “PR will be taken over by AI robots”. “PR robot, you cannot be Siri-ous”, I exclaimed a little too loudly, to the further bewilderment of my fellow passengers. Of course, then I realised that to the average Joe/Metro reader, PR is all about sending out a short PR to a group of media. Certainly, if you look at most short press releases you would be forgiven to think that robots are already at work, judging by the formulaic structure and lack of imaginative headlines.
Many agencies have already sacrificed themselves on the alter of automated distribution, using the services of Gorkana, Cision, PR Web or whatever they are calling the new huge PR Distribution conglomerate. Perhaps HAL would be a good name, just a thought. BCM and a few other agencies still build lists based on their knowledge of the media and their relationships with the journalists. But hey, I don’t want to get side-tracked.
Sarah Conner save us!
I note that the whole AI, is gonna rule the world thing, is catching on. The CEO of ARM believes it to be true and it would seem that the robot with a 10,000 IQ is not far away, take note Sarah Conor! It seems that Killer Robots, a Surveillance State and Human Helpers are just around the corner.
So far this week I have written articles about ‘The Impact of Wind Power in the New Decarbonised Society’, ‘Additive Manufacturing Techniques’, the ‘The Digitalisation of Office Buildings’ and ‘Management Services at the Zubair Oil & Gas Field’. Call me old fashioned, call me big headed, but sit me down in front of Big Blue, which must be the ultimate PR robot and I would win! Perhaps not with chess but I think I would give it a run for its money with Sudoku, particularly if it was from The Metro.
PS
Spare a thought for the poor insurance brokers as AI is going to take over their jobs, probably by Friday this week!